Summary: All fitness business owners want to find good personal trainers and keep them around long-term. Replacing a current employee can be expensive and stressful. The crucial tips we share might just be what you’re looking for to improve personal training staff loyalty.
Employee retention is a concern in many industries. The fitness industry is no different. It’s no secret that the field of personal training staff has a high turnover rate, especially in the first year of employment. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Thinking about fitness trainer retention now, rather than later, is essential in growing your business. Be sure to use these crucial tips to keep your personal trainers on staff longer. Above all, remember that employee loyalty yields client loyalty. So investing in a staff member helps to grow your business.
Advice For Training & Developing Personal Trainers
Hiring the right personal trainer can be a challenge. However, keeping the right personal trainer once they’re hired is equally a concern for gym owners. The following list unravels critical advice for fitness business owners regarding how to train, develop, and retain their personal training staff.
Upgrade Your Onboarding Experience
Setting a strong foundation with your new personal trainers is a vital component in their retention—this starts with a strong onboarding experience. New personal trainers should feel welcomed and supported. This means there should be strong new hire training, team introductions and interactions, clear expectations, exposure to the culture, and the freedom for the new personal trainer to ask questions.
The onboarding experience is an opportunity to build the team, engage employees, and reinforce culture. So, this isn’t a step in the process you will want to take lightly. Consider things like writing a personalized welcome letter where you highlight their strengths and let them know why you think they’re such a good fit. It sets the stage for a new employee to feel valued and part of the team. It’s worth the handful of thoughtful minutes it takes to be warm and sincere.
Consider Your Pay Structure
It takes time for a new certified personal trainer to build consistent clientele and make a more stable income. A large portion of a personal trainer’s income is often commission-based. But, until they get to a point where they have a strong foundation of clients, their commission can be a roller-coaster or simply a struggle to get out of the valleys.
First Year
Because of the challenges associated with the scenario above, many personal trainers leave personal training in the first year, not necessarily because they want to, but because they need to make more money consistently.
So, you may want to consider a salary or hourly-based pay structure (in the first year or so) that allows the personal trainer to focus on learning, growing, and developing their client base instead of worrying about whether or not they’ll be able to pay their rent. This type of stability also lends itself to loyalty to the business. It shows you value them for the long-term and want to ease the initial financial burdens of working as a personal trainer.
After The First Year
In addition to providing a more stable income to help new personal trainers get over the hump of the first year, it’s also important to provide a pay structure that allows your personal trainers to be paid well for their performance. You can consider commission or retention-based bonuses or other financial incentives related to client success and outcomes. These strategies help prevent the trainer from becoming complacent and allow them to feel like they have more control over their financial destiny. Trainers that are well-compensated or have the opportunities to advance are more likely to stick around.
Don’t Make It All About The Numbers
Most personal trainers start personal training because they have a passion for helping others. Obviously, the numbers are still relevant when it comes to the financial success of the personal trainer and your business. However, if you only focus on the number of personal training sessions, profits, or training package sales, you may start to disconnect your exercise professionals from the reason why they do what they do. Their role, then, turns into a grind. So, don’t forget to highlight other wins and other parts of the job that reinforce why your personal trainers love what they do—changing lives.
Provide Support
Giving your personal training staff the support they need is vital, especially as first-year trainers. New personal trainers are often trying to find their niche and are focused on finding prospective clients and training clients the right way. They may still be trying to learn processes and gain confidence in their skills.
As a leader, you’re provided with the opportunity to guide and shape new personal trainers in their journey. Identifying their weaknesses and what they need to improve is the first step. From there, it’s essential to create scenarios that challenge them, teach them, and encourage them to grow. You can liken it to how you train clients and gym members. Take their success personally and be emotionally invested in it. You may want to provide opportunities for them to shadow other trainers on your team or increase the cadence of your one-on-one meetings and allow them the time to really dig into and communicate their questions and concerns.
Keep in mind that this doesn’t only apply to new personal trainers. The needs and goals of your trainers will change as they progress in their careers. And it’s important that you continue to challenge and provide growth opportunities for your seasoned personal trainers as well.
Give Constructive Feedback
In alignment with supporting your new and current trainers, constructive feedback is crucial. However, knowing how to give constructive feedback is an art form. Constructive feedback should be a way to provide a critique that stimulates positive change. It requires the ability to observe carefully and the awareness to identify the positive and negative aspects of each trainer’s performance. However, it’s essential the feedback isn’t rooted in pointing out failures, creating fear, or shaming.
When executed properly, constructive feedback typically fosters positive feelings that indicate the leader is watching/listening, wants to help the trainer grow, and is willing to support them while they work toward improving. And this type of feedback and support often encourages the personal trainer to want to change.
Invest In Your Personal Trainers
There was a popular exchange between a CFO and a CEO that captures the essence of this piece of advice perfectly.
The CFO asked, “What happens if we invest in developing our people and then they leave us?”
The CEO responds, “What happens if we don’t, and they stay?”
Whether your personal training employees are there short-term or long-term, while they work for you, they are an extension of your business. You should make sure they have the skills, resources, education, and tools to represent your business well and provide an exceptional experience for your clients.
Investing in your personal trainer’s professional development doesn’t necessarily guarantee that they will stick around but that investment helps build loyalty and culture and creates an environment that a personal trainer wants to stay and grow in.
One of the ways you can invest in your personal training team is by providing or paying for different educational opportunities. The following list includes a few valuable specializations to consider because they are great courses for most certified personal trainers:
- Corrective Exercise
- Nutrition
- Behavior Change
- Strength Training & Conditioning
- Business and Marketing
Improve Your Contracts
Another way you can support better retention for your personal training staff is by improving your paperwork and contracts. There are several ways you can do this but ultimately it needs to make sense for you, your business, and the personal trainers you want to employ.
Keep in mind that this is not intended to be legal advice. These ideas are simply suggestions you can explore with your local legal counsel. One modification you could make to your paperwork is including perks or bonuses that increase in tandem with the length of time a personal trainer is employed with your company. Or you could invest in their education and training but require the personal trainer to pay a portion or all of it back if they leave your company before a certain time period (e.g., before a year of employment).
Offer Competitive Benefits
In addition to an appealing pay structure, what other benefits do you offer your personal training team? Do you have paid time off (PTO), full medical and dental coverage, or retirement options? Do you offer training, team builders, or discounts and perks from other fitness organizations? All these things add up and provide a more appealing and competitive offer for a personal trainer that wants to be in the fitness field for the long haul.
When you have a personal investment in developing your fitness staff, you’ll be reciprocated with their loyalty. And, it’s never too late to start this process with existing personal trainers. It doesn’t have to be a launch of new systems or protocols. Instead, change your own perspective on your interest in their benefits. Start making them part of the family and open up with vulnerability about what it’s like to be a gym owner. When employees see behind the curtain and feel like their part of something bigger, their dedication and engagement likewise grows.
Keeping your trainers is an overlooked part of growing your business becomes easier. And, when you use Naamly’s staff coaching and accountability features, you’re set up for guaranteed success. Try Naamly for free today to learn more about scaling and succeeding as a fitness business owner.